Alumni News

Do you have news to share about your own accomplishments or those of other UMD alumni, or other news that might be of interest to friends and alumni of the English Department? We'd love to hear your updates. Please send to englweb@umd.edu.

Michael Olmert lectured on “18th Century Architecture and the Creation of Sacred Spaces,” at Historic St. Martin’s Church (built 1756-63), Worcester Co., MD., Sept. 9, 2017. This talk was adapted from a chapter of his forthcoming book, "Space, Meaning, and Intention in 18th Century Architecture."

Christin Taylor '13 recently got a book contract with the University Press of Mississippi for a version of her dissertation, directed by David Wyatt. The book is tentatively titled Labor Pains: New Deal Fictions of Race, Work and Sex. It reconsiders the use of an imagined working class black folk across genres of southern modernism during the New Deal and Popular Front eras.

Emily Johnson graduated cum laude from the University of Maryland in spring 2017 with a double major in English and Linguistics. While on campus, she completed an Honors College citation, was admitted to Sigma Tau Delta, the English Honor Society, and received the Dean's Scholarship. She is currently interning at Her Mind magazine and is in search of a career in editing or publishing. This summer, Johnson gained admission to a Folger Institute workshop on digital archives at the Folger Shakespeare Library. — Editor's Note

This summer Simone Drake was promoted to full professor and awarded the Youngberg Distinguished Professor chair in the Department of African American and African Studies at The Ohio State University. She is affiliate faculty in the Department of English as well as Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She is also the principal investigator for an $130, 000 Arts & Humanities Discovery Theme grant at Ohio State University that focuses on Transnational Black Citizenship.